Regional Planners OK With Convenience Store

Image from screenshot.

Regional planners looked over the specs for a new Royal Farms convenience store being planned for property adjacent to Moyer Lumber on Armand Hammer Boulevard near to the interchange with Route 422.

Plans for a new place to grab some coffee, a donut, gas and get your car cleaned took another step forward the approval process Wednesday night.

A proposal to build a Royal Farms convenience store off Armand Hammer Boulevard, adjacent to Moyer's lumber, got the thumbs up from the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Commission.

This group, comprised of representatives from Pottstown and the seven municipalities that surround it, has no actual approval authority.

But they are asked to determine of any proposal is "generally consistent" with the regional comprehensive plan adopted by all eight of the municipalities. They are Pottstown, Lower Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove, West Pottsgrove, North Coventry, East Coventry, New Hanover and Douglass (Mont.)

The site for the convenience store, shown in the rectangle,

shown at right on the above map, would be on three vacant
acres subdivided off the 13-acre site that houses the
Moyer Lumber yard.

That determination was obtained with a unanimous vote Wednesday night.

The plan calls for 16 gas pumps, a convenience store and a car wash.

It would be located on three acres being subdivided off the 13-acre plot on which the lumber yard sits. The proposal does not affect the lumber yard, which will remain open, according to township officials. 

Tom Troutman, who represents Lower Pottsgrove at the planning group, said the plan has not yet made its way through the entire township planning commission's land development process.

The plan was the subject of two public hearings in May, one before the zoning board seeking four variances and one before the township commissioners seeking conditional use approvals.

The property is located in Lower Pottsgrove's "interchange district," which allows such uses with the approval of the township commissioners.

Access to the new store would be via the existing

driveway opposite the entrance to Home Depot.

The developers no doubt want to make use of the site's proximity to the busy interchange with Route 422.

In 2013, township officials entertained a similar proposal to located a convenience store, or fast food restaurant on the other side of that interchange, on three unused acres at the site of the former Occidental Chemical Co.

However, that plan never came to fruition and was never built.

Both locations offer "easy-off/easy-on" access to both directions of Route 422, making it easy for use by commuters on the busy highway.

The plan is to align the entrance to Royal Farms, with Home Depot across the street to make use of the traffic light already there. Whether any changes to the signal's programming as a result of the additional traffic movements has not yet been determined.

Click here to read the Tweets from Wednesday night's meeting.